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Thumbs down to you also Speshy. If people want to act like a dick, so will I.

Just seems like anytime there is praise or a positive vibe for this team the same clown car shows up to throw pies in the face of people and belittle them.

Pick a side, You either think Ireland is going to get it done or you don't. We'll see who has the pie on their face by the end of next season. Sorry it's hard to get a positive vibe even in this situation when the only support the guy has to stand on are excuses. I'm not going to sit hear and beat the anti Ireland drum, but i completely understand those people who do.

Ireland does deserve praise for getting the Fins into this situation. He has spent the past couple of years cleaning up the mess that Sparano and Tuna left him. Jeff has only been in charge of the football department since the 2011 offseason and it takes time to get this team in a position with a lot of cap space and a lot of high draft picks. Sure the team has been mediocre on the field since Ireland took over in 2011 but they have been in cap hell and never been in a position to have so many value draft picks in the upcoming draft. So long to Sparano and Tuna's guys like Long and Smith, this is now Ireland and Philbin's team and Miami enters this offseason in great shape.

How conveinent that Ireland was not responsible for the cap situation lol he was just here

you must be kidding me he sucks and he will never build a good team watch jeff will some how screw this up we are a joke and he needs to go there is a reason we are always around 500 and the cap space should tell you something what a joke this guy is just like trading v/davis and just like getting marshall who can"t cove anyone

I'm betting that we blow this draft and FA - just as we have every year since Ireland has been here. Not wanting to re-sign any of your high draft picks or FA's you brought in tells me you stink at your job / make bad decisions on players. Think about that - for every guy Ireland picked but then wants to low-ball or not re-sign is an admission of failure. How do you build through the draft if you are trading away your early picks 2 or 3 seasons later or not re-signing your top selections, etc? That's not building through the draft... The cap space is what it is - let's see how well we do spending it. My bet is we spend a ton on one FA WR - Wallace or Jennings and use the rest on "value" players. Oh - and the impact of Wallace or Jennings will be negated by the loss of Bush in terms of # of big plays per year so if the above is "all we do" this offseason we shouldn't expect to be much better than last year.

I can't believe the negative-nancy Ireland bashers on this board. A few points for you all to consider:
- Ireland has not yet lost any starters that are due to hit free agency. Having said that, I think it's very smart for him to let them hit free agency so that he doesn't end up overpaying them before the market dictates their value. IMHO, chances are that many of the free agents the dolphins are interested in re-signing will be disappointed with their market value and will re-sign with the fins on reasonable terms. Of course we will lose a few like maybe Bush, Matt Moore, McDaniel but it seems Jeff has a priority plan so that we end up with value players on the roster.
- Furthermore, the money that he saves on players not re-signed will be allocated to players in free agency that better fit our needs. Like a difference-maker WR for example. Yes he will have to overpay for this type of player, but it's still value in the sense that it fits better with what our new coaching staff is trying to do. He will also go after some value players like he did in the past with Randy Starks, Anthony Fasano, Cameron Wake, Matt Moore, Kevin Burnett; All free agents and trades that didn't break the bank in terms of cap or draft picks but turned out to be solid starters or better.
- We still have the very deep (by all accounts) draft where we have 9 picks, 6 of which are in the first 3 rounds. I am very excited about this, in part because of how this last draft turned out. How many of the players drafted do you all think should make the team and have an impact? I would conservatively say about 5 or 6 including UDFA's.
So between resigning our own FAs going by priority, picking up a few free agents that better fit our system, and being in good position in a deep draft, there's plenty to be optimistic about. I commend Ireland for putting us in this situation and I'm pretty confident he'll do well in the coming months based on what he's done recently, including having found us a possible franchise QB.

Yes, we have picks and money - but why? Because we are getting rid of starters - those extra picks and money will go towards filling the holes he opened. It's not a difficult task to trade a #1CB for a second-round pick. Should Ireland be 'commended' for that? Nope. Should he be commended for not re-signing guys? Oh wait, he drafted these players who aren't good enough to warrant a second deal. If you open up holes the way Ireland has, you better have extra picks and money. I can't commend a GM for doing these things; they aren't hard, and he's had zero playoff success.

The past draft (Tannehill, Martin, ect) was pretty solid. So by your own words, we should have another solid draft.

Grabbing a QB was mandatory and Tannehill was a no-brainer given the inside info we had. The more impressive move was Martin, which was the first and only proactive move he's ever made. Of course, that depends on which thread you open. The same people who praise the Martin pick in these threads are often the same people who rip Martin to shreds in favor of keeping Long in other threads (because they are typically the same people that can't stand the idea of letting go of any Dolphins players).

If he keeps that up with all the available cash and picks, then I'll be the first to praise him for finally shaking off the Parcells chains. He's shown signs of potentially being a competent GM by finally addressing the most important position in football and prepping for the loss of Bosel...I mean Long a year before it became a possibility. However, if he fails to bring in any playmakers, I doubt those that support any move he makes will feel any differently. Just more excuses.

That being said, I look forward to the same people praising this article ripping Armando to shreds the next time he writes a negative article about the Phins.

Yes, we have picks and money - but why? Because we are getting rid of starters - those extra picks and money will go towards filling the holes he opened. It's not a difficult task to trade a #1CB for a second-round pick. Should Ireland be 'commended' for that? Nope. Should he be commended for not re-signing guys? Oh wait, he drafted these players who aren't good enough to warrant a second deal. If you open up holes the way Ireland has, you better have extra picks and money. I can't commend a GM for doing these things; they aren't hard, and he's had zero playoff success.

The idea that the players he drafted and might let walk are not good enough to get a second deal is not quite accurate. The Texans let Mario Williams walk last year, was he not good enough to be re-signed? The Panthers let Julius Peppers walk, was he not good enough to be re-signed? Greg Jennings and Mike Wallace are hitting the market this year, are they not good enough to be re-signed? Sometimes it isn't about whether they earned the right to get a second NFL contract, it is about playing the salary cap game and not overpaying players.

Miami could easily sign all their free agents back at the value the players are demanding, however it would prevent them from finding "upgrades" in the market and will hurt them cap wise in future years. You see teams every year that are in cap hell and having to cut starters and eating a lot of dead money just to get in compliance with the salary cap. The Jets had to cut a bunch of starters just to get under the cap. The Falcons cut their starting running back and the Steelers had to restructure a lot of current contracts in an attempt to get under. By the way, the Steelers are really going to have to pay for it in a few years when they are not going to be able to keep pushing money to future years.

The Dolphins have the money and draft picks this offseason to not only replace these players, but to replace them with younger, cheaper and in some cases more talented players. It sucks that Reggie Bush is going to likely sign elsewhere this offseason, but instead of paying him $5-6 million a year, they can pay Lamar Miller $480,000 to do a lot of the same things. $11-13 million for Jake Long to be the LT or $607,000 for Martin at LT? Now I am not saying they can never re-sign players or give out big money contracts but you have to be careful not to just throw around money and get back into the position that Ireland and Aponte have spent the past few years digging the team out of. If they re-sign all their free agents there is no room to add a Mike Wallace or Greg Jennings, keep that in mind.

Ireland can also get some of these players back after they test the market and see the money they want is not really out there. That happened last offseason when Soliai was demanding close to $12 million a season before free agency started. He tested the market then signed a contract with the Dolphins for $6 million a season. Smart business.

I find this subject kind of comical... The main reason Ireland has put us in such a good position cap wise is because for the most part he's avoided overpaying for players in free agency... now all the experts and fans expect him to go wild and spend all his 40m ish... not going to happen